Vanessa Bates' "A Ghost in My Suitcase: the play" teachers' review

Brief description and distinctive features

Brief description of A Ghost in My Suitcase: the play

Based on the book of the same name by Gabrielle Wang, A Ghost in My Suitcase shares the journey of Celeste as she takes her mother’s ashes from Australia back to China. This journey also becomes a coming-of-age experience for 12-year-old Celeste as she grows in confidence and confronts her loss and fears.  On arrival at Shanghai airport Celeste meets her grandmother, Por Por, who calls Celeste Little Cloud. Por Por is a quirky and wise woman with an unusual skill; she is a ghost-hunter and her services are much in demand.

 While Por Por is welcoming and affectionate to Celeste, Ting Ting is not. She is the ward of Por Por and clearly resents Celeste’s imposition. Once in China the play’s title grows in relevance and ghost-hunting and ghost-busting will follow Celeste, Por Por and Ting Ting.

When Celeste learns she may have inherited her grandmother’s talent, she must decide whether to acknowledge her gifts and use them to save her family and friends. But does she have the strength needed for the job?

The play explores families, stories which unite us, myths, secrets and superstition. It also delights in the quirkiness that can be our relatives.

In exploring this play, please provide opportunities for your students to be active in vocalising scenes. Get them up and moving and enjoy the possibilities of creating visuals and sound effects to establish some of the settings in China and the magic of the ghosts. 

Create a classroom culture to explore drama texts where plays are seen as a unique form and intended for performance. Scripts are prompts for performance and students need to move and be active with scripts. It is not about creating actors but vocalizing. Use the metalanguage of script: stage directions, set design, scenes, acts.

Above all, have some fun.

Distinctive features of A Ghost in My Suitcase: the play

• Short play based on a novel
• Combines adventure, fantasy, cross- cultures, diaspora
• 14 short scenes which propel the narrative and create pace
• Layers within the story provide for deeper exploration
• Takes place in Shanghai and an ancient Chinese water village which could be re-created through a series of evocative images on slides for projection
• Reviews of various Australian productions are available which include visuals from the productions
• Matt Edgerton’s Introduction provides some interesting insights to fantasy, identity and the play’s production development 
• The ending is very moving and beautiful.

Ways to use A Ghost in My Suitcase: the play in the classroom

Preparing for the play’s context/content:

• Depending on the cultural background of your class, contextual details may need some exploration. Consider a discussion on the power of theatre and plays to tell stories and how those stories can be simple and ordinary, about families and about us. It is about finding the extraordinary behind the ordinary and valuing the idiosyncrasies of people in our lives. Consider small group sharing about a relative or friend or neighbour who has some unusual even eccentric habits. What do we love about them or what are we embarrassed by?
• Consider some discussion about superstition as part of our culture. What superstitions exist in your family? From your culture and heritage? For example: a four-leaf clover, a rabbit’s foot, the number 7, black cat, walking under a ladder, shoes on the table, walking on footpath cracks.
• What role do ghosts play in our society? None? Some? A lot? What do ghosts signify for some cultures e.g. good ghosts, evil ghosts, fear, fun, the past, death, haunting the space?

Engaging with the play

• Engage the class in a reading of the opening scene: either the teacher reads the part of Celeste or a student may like this role. If a student be sure to give them a few minutes to read the script. If you have students who can read/speak Mandarin they could read the flight attendant’s announcement to help establish the authenticity of the scene and also to validate and celebrate their own cultural identity.
• Discuss the mood of this opening scene especially as created by the stage directions referencing Celeste’s dream. How does her mood change with the in-flight announcement? As an exposition what do we learn in this opening scene? Consider reading the second scene which expands the exposition with further background on Celeste’s reasons to be in China and also we meet Por Por and Ting Ting.
• After the second scene consider small groups to continue the rest of the play reading: this is what happens in production. The actors often sit around in a circle and read the play to establish what happens and where. It is a short play so this reading could occur in one lesson. During the reader students should be looking for the distinctive features of the three main each characters- Celeste, Por Por and Ting Ting. After the reading groups could look back over the script and decide on their favourite 2-3 scenes.
• Feedback from groups: 
  • How would you describe the three main characters? What are the distinguishing features the actors would need to create?
  • What were your group’s favourite scenes- what made them so?
• Over the next few lessons each group rehearses a favourite scene. It does not matter if the scenes are duplicated, it is about getting students up and moving and vocalising. As part of their rehearsal, groups are to create a series of slides for projection to be used when they present their scene to the class. Students could also discuss and create sound effects to enhance their scene e.g. music, loud noises to evoke the ghosts and earth tremors. The following pages (p.1, 2, 8, 15, 25, 33, 39, 40) have scenes which would be fascinating for students to focus on by researching their setting and creating images to accompany the scenes.
• Allow time for students to rehearse their chosen scenes with the sound effects and visuals.
• Allocate two lessons for the group presentations.
• Discus the key ideas of your chosen scene and the contribution each character makes. How did your collaborative group presentation group help you to understand this scene more fully? Choose one other group presentation and comment in what ways did they bring their scene to life?

Responding to the play

Written response: As a class explore the play’s key ideas and messages. Choose two ideas and write 300 words on how these ideas are developed in the play.

In what ways does the final scene draw together the key ideas of the play? How did the final scene impact on you?

Relevant details in relation to the new English 7-10 syllabus

Text requirements: A Ghost in my Suitcase is a drama text written by an Australian playwright.  It contains intercultural experiences and cultural, social and gender perspectives. 

Concepts could include Perspective and context • Representation.

Relevant NSW English 7-10 Syllabus content

Reading, viewing and listening to texts

A student uses a range of personal, creative and critical strategies to read texts that are complex in their ideas and construction EN4-RVL-01

• Apply a range of strategies to develop fluency in reading aloud, including an understanding of pace, tone and voice
• Revisit texts to develop a clear understanding of the themes, ideas and attitudes they express

Reading, viewing and listening for meaning

• Explore the main ideas and thematic concerns posed by a text for meaning
• Engage with the ways texts contain layers of meaning, or multiple meanings
• Identify and understand that relevant prior knowledge and personal experience enables and enhances understanding when reading, viewing or listening to texts
• Explain personal responses to characters, situations and issues in texts, recognising the role of written, oral or visual language in influencing these personal responses
• Explain how the use of language forms and features in texts might create multiple meanings

Reading for challenge, interest and enjoyment

• Read texts selected to challenge thinking, develop interest and promote enjoyment, to prompt a personal response
• Communicate purposefully with peers in response to texts
• Understand the ways reading helps us understand ourselves and make connections to others and to the world

Reflecting

• Reflect on how reading, viewing and listening to texts has informed learning
• Reflect on how an understanding of texts can be enhanced through re-reading and close study
• Discuss and reflect on the value of reading for personal growth and cultural awareness
• Reflect on how reading promotes a broad and balanced understanding of the world and enables students to explore universal issues
• Reflect on own experiences of reading by sharing what was enjoyed, discussing challenges to strengthen an understanding of the value of reading

Understanding and responding to texts A

A student analyses how meaning is created through the use of and response to language forms, features and structures EN4-URA-01

Representation

• Explore how language and text are acts of representation that range from objective to subjective and may offer layers of literal or implied meanings, and apply this understanding in own texts

Connotation, imagery and symbol

• Analyse how figurative language and devices can represent ideas, thoughts and feelings to communicate meaning
• Apply knowledge of how different patterns and combinations of figurative language devices can shape meaning throughout a text through established or dynamic associations, and experiment with these devices in own texts
• Point of view
• Recognise how texts engage and position the audience to perceive events, characters and ideas using narrative voice and focalisers, tense, sequencing and intrusion, and apply this understanding in own texts

Characterisation

• Analyse how engaging characters are constructed in texts through a range of language features and structures, and use these features and structures in own texts
• Understand how the interactions of characters, such as protagonists and antagonists, might be perceived to represent aspects of human relationships, and experiment with interactions when composing texts

Narrative

• Understand narrative conventions, such as setting, plot and sub-plot, and how they are used to represent events and personally engage the reader, viewer or listener with ideas and values in texts, and apply this understanding in own texts
• Examine how narratives can depict personal and collective identities, values and experiences

Understanding and responding to texts B

A student examines and explains how texts represent ideas, experiences and values EN4-URB-01

Perspective and context

• Understand how perspectives are shaped by language and text
• Explore how the perspectives of audiences shape engagement with, and response to, texts
• Examine how elements of personal and social contexts can inform the perspective and purpose of texts and influence creative decisions
• Consider the influence of cultural context on language

Expressing ideas and composing texts A

A student creates personal, creative and critical texts for a range of audiences by using linguistic and stylistic conventions of language to express ideas EN4-ECA-01

• Compose visual and multimodal texts to represent ideas, experiences and values
• Select modal elements to work together to support meaning or shape reader response
• Use digital technologies where appropriate to compose multimodal texts

Speaking

• Deliver spoken, signed or communicated texts with effective control of intonation, emphasis, volume, pace and timing
• Participate in informal discussions about texts and ideas, including speculative and exploratory talk, to consolidate personal understanding and generate new ideas
• Use features of gesture, manner and voice to signal the progression and development of ideas through language and structure

(English K-10 Syllabus 2022 © NSW Education Standards Authority for and on behalf of the Crown in right of the State of New South Wales, 2023)

Connecting texts